It is through the heart felt
moments and times of struggles and calamity do we feel connected to
individuals. Naturally in life we tend to overlook struggles. We view them as a
means of exposing rather than developing a person’s potential. This perhaps
raises the question on whether the struggles we face define who we view our own
self. This statement best reflects my father and his journey to immigrate to
the United States.
It was
during the early 90’s that my father embraced a new culture, lifestyle that
suited his beliefs, despite the struggles he faced at that time. My father was still
adjusting to speaking English, being much of a language barrier. Likewise,
finding a job to afford a roof to sleep was much of a challenge. His current
life at Pakistan at time was not much better as diseases were common along with
much poverty. He had many brothers and sisters who had to work hard at a young
age. My father would tell me stories about running a shop he had back home. He
would work many days a week when he was not in school.
My
father’s vision was to always be a business man. He viewed the United States as
providing a pathway to his achieve his goals. Through many observations from
owners to employees gave my father the notion that the United States truly was
productive and provided plenty of opportunity. He also learned that it was necessary
to learn and be willing to learn more.
My
father learned that he could control his own destiny because when he has money
he can support his family back home and raise a family himself. Before
starting his own business my father would go ahead and work fulltime as a cab
driver. My father would mention that he would not come home on certain days
throughout the week as he would still be driving just so that our family could
survive. It was till my father read an article on the New York Times about the
cab medallion and its value going up really fast, faster than the stock and
gold market did the idea click in his head.
My
father thirteen years ago and still today feels content for starting his own
cab business and would not have done any other way differently. My father at
first found himself working very hard as later he had, “People who I worked for
are now working me. We use to work together but right now they became my
employees. I am very luck they are working for me.” This company that he formed
an auto body mechanic shop, dealership and commercial insurance for taxi cabs
in Philadelphia would eventually become big. The company according to my father
“basically always did something and evolved. We learned whichever field
had the most opportunities and did our best”. The company’s reputation
would continue to grow despite the fierce competition against competitors such
as Uber and Lyft. The company also had lots of pressure from the stock who
worked for the Claim and Under Righting Department. When my father married to
his wife it really had a big impact to his business success. My father
described it as his luck changed due to his wife helping him during such
difficult times. It was much of a team effort to consult and also agree on
investments.
Key
fundamentals that my father value to this day are the ideas of being
trustworthy and punctuality. These characteristics are what perhaps define a
very successful business person today through being reliable and providing
value for customers. My father’s vision although from the past was also due to
the idea that his family members also owned their own small shops. My father
emphasis to me the qualities of striking a balance between having control and
managing to feeling at ease.
Another key trait my father was considers is having a good relation with your
clients and employees. My father’s believed that firm management comes through
having experts on the team. In other words, those who are much more smart than
the manager at a particular field in the company. This will ensure the policy
of being able to think outside the box for business prosperity and give room
for collaboration in many fields of the business. Overall, my father’s believes
to be successful and confident are drive from what keeps him motivated to this
day. He enjoys his work as he never viewed it as burden since he always knew
and had faith in whatever he did.
He is a confident individual. His job gives hands on work.
He views his job as worthwhile. His job gives adequate free time. He has served
in local clubs. His profession allows him to travel. He chose premed in
the beginning. He was influenced from a professor. He has pride in his
beginnings. His toughest instructor taught him grit. Dentistry almost chose
him. Dentistry provides a respected lifestyle. Dentistry merges hands on with
medicine. Excellent dentists share a common characteristic. They have an
attention to Detail. He has ambitious goals in life. He manages a dental
business. He began practicing his dentistry alone. Specializes in dental
hygiene and operatory. He formed business Horsham Dental Elements. His company
an beta testing site. Accomplish much at 64 years old. Believes his life
fulfill at 64. He believes expertise life long process. Has 35 years of
experience. He is a one man band. He always loves to problem solve. Not just a
dentist an educator. Has a passion for educating others. He has lectured
students in life. He taught and lectured many dentists. He wishes to
fulfill other lives. He stresses importance of giving back. He believes to make
a difference. He has genuine concern for others. Gives detailed explanation to
his patients. His ideology is to share knowledge. Has a daughter with master’s
degree. He has served in local clubs. He is an active community member. He has
worked in rotary international.
Dr Henkel is person, who likes to help people, relieve
their discomfort and see the change in his patient’s self-esteem. He would walk
in the hallways with a thudded gait as he made his way to each of the patients’
room. He would often wear his green collared shirt and have his apple watch
tightened on his right hand. His surgical mask would be tucked in his neck. His
fairly trimmed hair was brownish and hardly noticeable. One of his homes is a
place that allowed him to practice under his own name, Horsham Dental Elements.
He would be ambitious in his goals and always taking leads in operations. He
would always have his right hand always empty waiting for the next instrument
to grip the job. He would have tools ranging from using clamps, forceps and other
implant probes in dealing with surgical operations such as root canals. His
frustrations would be present to many, as he put down each instrument in
frustration. His tackling in fixing the patients cosmetics would be considered
aggressive. He would show a much softer side of him for once his end of each
project was finished. He would most participate in the “big rounds” he like to
call and give a detailed summary to his patients. His way of expressing his
firm stature yet humbleness was through his talk with patients. Dr. Henkel
would give the best advice as possible; sometimes it would be about evaluating
a better alternative for next time. Other times it would be about scheduling
another appointment in a few months for a regular checkup.
Aamir Khokhar
English 101-111
Dr. Kirstein Kaschock
November 15, 2016
Dr. Henkel
It would be early
on Saturday morning in which I roll out of bed to prepare for my internship at
Dr. Henkel’s place, Horsham Dental Elements. Dr. Henkel acquired the
dental center in 1990 after moving the suburbs in Horsham (Dr. Henkel
Interview). Many patients would come to this dental clinic, sitting in the
waiting lounge as they wait for their name to be announced. Each patient would
be directed to the assigned room from the dental specialist.
During the
procedures for dental hygiene the dental hygienist would often comment on the
patient and the overall health of their teeth. “Gums look much less swollen. I
barely see any plaque?” Other times they remark, “Are you flossing more
regularly?” Once the polishing and cleaning was complete the dental hygienist
would then mention “Wait here, he will be here in just a moment.”
Who was coming? It
was the inspector, Dr. Henkel. The man was as round as a globe. He would dress
in his usual green collared shirt, as he waddled down the hallway with his
thudding gait. Immediately, once entering the room, he would greet his patients
with his warm welcoming smile. In addition, he would sit in his swivel chair,
cover his mouth with his surgical mask and then put his dental glasses to
carefully examine the x-ray screens. In other words, he was now ready to get
straight to the point.
Dr. Henkel
however, did not limit himself to stay in a particular field in dentistry as he
specialized in all major fields of dentistry including dental hygiene,
surgical, orthodontics and operatory. He first began practicing under his own
name in 1985. Ever since then, he has felt the need to be a contributing member
and educator for students and the community (Dr. Henkel Interview).
In both surgical
and operatory procedures Dr. Henkel was a one man band. Another dental
specialist would be on the side handing off the different tools such as
syringes for numbness of the nerve or a dental elevator. Some operations that
he would do include root canals and even crown fillings or replacements. Basic
dental instruments such as mouth mirror would be used for a closer peak. Other
instruments such as forceps would be used to pluck out the molars for patients
with wisdom teeth. His frustration in getting the molars out would cause him to
show it by banging the instrument on the tray, however he would never give up
and set an ambitious standard for himself. Dr. Henkel would mention in our
interview, “but if one does not set high goals for oneself, how will they ever
know what might have been attained” (Dr. Henkel Interview).
Throughout my time
in my internship, I knew very little about Dr. Henkel and his personal life.
Occasionally, through small bits of conversations he had with his co- workers
and patients I would begin to learn a little more about my mentor. Often times
at the end of the procedures he would begin by describing the patient’s dental
cosmetics and how it compares with before or what his game plan was to keep
their teeth in good shape. His precision and accuracy of explaining procedures
or the current dental anatomy would make it easy for patients to seek advice
and converse to the point of further discussion on alternative solutions.
Other times he
tells patients some bizarre story for when he was a scuba diver. In other
cases, he would mention “I’d used to travel a lot when I was a lot younger to
Europe. I met lots of professors, other dentists and we discuss in our board
committee about advancements, different techniques and improvements that could
be made in dentistry.”
Interestingly, a
passion in pursuing a dental career was at first, never under his radar. Dr.
Henkel best describes dentistry as almost chasing him since the field merged
his undergraduate studies as a premed major with hand on learning. In our
interview he would make mention that as a child, he enjoyed assembling cars,
airplanes and would build rockets. Overall, for these reasons he felt that
dentistry was a perfect match for him (Dr. Henkel Interview).
As an educator Dr.
Henkel was influenced from extraordinary people in his opinion who have taught
him the importance in pursuing excellence. A microbiology professor from the
Philippines who Dr. Henkel described very small in stature, for instance, she
would give her entire lecture series over an entire semester without ever
looking at a note. Another role model was Dr. Benjamin Leone, a clinical
instructor at the University of Detroit who was the toughest instructor he had
in dental school. Dr. Henkel described “Getting an ‘A’ from him was next to
impossible. But he taught us more, made us do our work to the highest standard,
than most others” (Dr. Henkel Interview).
Moreover,
dentistry gives Dr. Henkel in his opinion the adequate free time to pursue
other interests, including a part time job as a driver and the ability to
travel to the Galapagos islands, the Caribbean, the pacific rim and other
places in north America and Europe. The man is widely knowledgeable, as his
travel experiences around the world has left him with great understanding of
the different philosophies and techniques adopted in other areas. A general
overview is that “Europe and Asian rim companies are very big in dental
implantolgoly. European and Scandinavian countries have some different
philosophies from what we teach in the United States” (Dr. Henkel Interview).
With the relative
changes in dentistry and medicine in general, Dr. Henkel’s current hopes are to
remain competitive. The growth of business Horsham Dental Elements corresponds
with the firm being a current beta testing site that has new technologies that
are cutting edge. More specifically, the dental firm has allowed itself to be
evaluated on the success on new equipment, material that is also sent to
evaluator across the country. From there the information is tabulated and
published. Currently, as of now in Horsham Dental Elements Dr. Henkel has “3
different wireless headlamps, a couple different filling materials, and several
different materials used for root canal treatment” (Dr. Henkel Interview).
Overall, some of
Dr. Henkel’s values are similar to what he has told his daughter and countless
students before, to contribute the world. He states in our interview that for
when “We leave this earth; we leave it a little better place than when we
entered it”. On a professional note, Dr. Henkel has a strong desire to see the
satisfaction and change in self-esteem in his patients. He believes that the
process patients must go through makes it worthwhile in the end (Dr. Henkel
Interview).
This goes without
saying that his 35 years of experience and lecturing give’s his strong belief
in the idea that learning is a lifelong process. A persons schooling year, for
instance, only provides the basics to succeed much like a learning permit. Dr.
Henkel mentions to me that “I’ve been out of school since 1979, and I’d
estimate 2/3 of what we were taught has either been found to be not correct or
has been supplanted by newer techniques and technology”(Dr. Henkel Interview).
One technology,
for instance, CAD/CAM Dentistry (Computer Aided Design and Computer Aided
Manufacturing in Dentistry) is a computer technology that can help “design and
manufacture different types of dental restorations.” This technology is used in
advanced areas of dentistry as it provides numerous conveniences to dental
offices such as Horsham Dental Elements in creating a crown, implant, bridge or
any orthodontic appliance. The overall process involves the use of 3-D imaging
to scan the tooth structure and have it ready within a matter of hours. This is
in contrast to which the process would take weeks for dental laboratories to
perform such operations (Kostrzewski DMD).
Works Cited
Dr. Henkel. Interview. 7 Nov. 2016.
Kostrzewski DMD, Walter. "CAD/CAM Dentistry." Dental
Technology. ACE Dental Education,
www.acedentalresource.com/dental-procedures/dental-technology/cad-cam-dentistry/.
The buzz of my alarm
Time to go
My feet on the ground
I brush my teeth
I brush my hair
The howl of the wind
The fall of leaves
Leaves run at times
I ran to the stop sign
A yellow bus appears
I hoped on the bus
I looked out the window
I see my house
I see leaves in
houses
I see leaves on houses
I see leaves at houses
I see leaves raked
I see the library
I see my school in front of me
I see school grounds
Students are rushing in
I learned to write letters
The sound of the bell
I learned in math
Students would rush
The bell rang
The munching of food
The bell rang
Students will rush
I need to go in library
I need to research
I learned to research
The sound of a bell
A bell to go
Buses out the window
Buses rush to the school
Students rush out
I rush out
I learned to run
Time to go home
Students appear on bus
My bus stops on stop sign
Students hop off bus
I hop off bus
A wind appears
The wind brushes the
leaves
Leaves hoped on piles
Fall time appears
Grounds need raking
I see my house out the window
My school not in front of me
I learned to not run
I learned to flow
I see mail letters
I ring my house bell
My feet in my house
I munch on food
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